1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a baitcasting reel having a spool which permits to decrease rotational resistance during free rotation thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a baitcasting reel, a spool shaft to which a spool is secured, is rotatably supported between right and left-hand frame plates of a reel frame body or between a pair of side plates respectively secured to the frame plates, and the spool is rotated by a rotational operation of a handle supported on one of the frame plates or the side plate secured thereto, to wind a fishing line onto the spool. There is provided a clutch mechanism in a driving force transmission means connecting the spool shaft and the handle, thus making it possible to selectively keep the spool in any one of a retrieving condition (i.e., a condition in which the fishing line can be wound onto the spool and cannot be paid out) and a casting condition (i.e., a condition in which the fishing line can be paid out) by the "ON/OFF" operation of the clutch mechanism.
However, in the conventional baitcasting reel, a pinion of the clutch mechanism is slidably and rotatably put on the spool shaft which is separately formed from the spool and stationarily secured to the spool, with the result that the pinion interferes with the spool shaft to exert an adverse influence on the free rotation of the spool, even when the clutch mechanism is kept in an "off" condition, thus acting as resistance to the rotation of the spool for paying out the fishing line therefrom.
The technical concepts for decreasing rotational resistance during free rotation of the spool of the baitcasting reel have therefore been proposed in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. S60-10380, Japanese Utility Model Provisional Publication No. S57-158372, Japanese Utility Model Registration No. 3006602, Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. H8-242730 and Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. H3-216138.
In all of the baitcasting reels disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. S60-10380, Japanese Utility Model Provisional Publication No. S57-158372, Japanese Utility Model Registration No. 3006602 and Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. H8-242730, interference of the pinion with the spool shaft during free rotation of the spool is prevented by forming the pinion supporting shaft separately from the spool shaft integrally rotated with the spool, and supporting both ends of the respective spool shaft and pinion supporting shaft on the frame plates or side plates. However, the spool and the spool shaft are rotated integrally with each other, with the result that most of the component masses of the combination of the spool with the spool shaft concentrate in a position in the vicinity of the rotation axis of the spool, thus decreasing the moment of inertia accordingly and causing a problem that it is hard to maintain the free rotation of the spool by inertia caused by the rotation thereof for a long period of time.
In such a conventional baitcasting reel, the weight of the spool is increased by the weight of the spool shaft, and accordingly, a relatively larger force is required for braking the rotation of the spool, making it uneasy not only to carry out a proper braking operation against the rotation of the spool, but also to make fine adjustments in braking.
On the other hand, in the baitcasting reel disclosed in Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. H3-216138, interference of the pinion with the spool shaft during free rotation of the spool is prevented by rotatably supporting the spool on the spool shaft through bearings, which is supported on the both side plates. However, a higher strength of the spool shaft is required due to the fact that the spool is supported on the spool shaft supported on the both side plates, resulting in increase in diameter of the spool shaft. In addition, the ensuring of a sufficient strength for withstanding force applied for winding the fishing line onto the spool may increase the diameter of the fishing line winding body of the spool accordingly, thus causing a problem of decrease in winding capacity of the fishing line onto the spool, since the bearings exist between the spool shaft and the spool.
In all of the conventional baitcasting reels mentioned above, the spool is supported by means of the spool shaft passing through the spool, thus causing a problem that it is impossible to decrease the weight of the baitcasting reel.